6 – 2011

et cetera Paulo Mendes da Rocha

“I would have known where to have placed the foundations for my bridge.” This is what Swiss author Hugo Loetscher writes who, from his numerous travels, knows both the Lusitanian countries that we report about in this issue. However where Loetscher in his last book, “War meine Zeit meine Zeit”, would have built his bridge, above the bay of San Francisco, there already exists one. But there was no crossing of the River Carpinteira valley in Covilhã in central Portugal where João Luís Carrilho da Graça has built a 220-metre-long, elegantly curved bridge for pedestrians and cyclists. The Brazilian grand master Paulo Mendes da Rocha also plays a subtle game with space in Recife in north-eastern Brazil. The chapel of Nossa Senhora da Conceição creates a sensual connection between nature and humankind. Here an imaginary bridge across time is constructed and anchored with dignity in the dense jungle. From the Amazon to the Carpinteira the narrative flow of this issue finds its way via the Spree back to Lake Zurich, just as the Zurich lad Hugo Loetscher, who grew up on the banks of the Sihl, always lands back at his native river.